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How to hire your first GTM hire

Updated

Make your first go-to-market hire after you, the founder, have closed the first customers yourself and can say why they bought. For most seed and Series A startups that hire is a senior account executive who will carry a quota and close deals, not a VP of sales who will build a team.

When to hire

Founders should sell first. Paul Graham's advice is blunt: you have to do sales yourself initially. Selling is how you learn who buys, why, and what they will pay, and a new hire cannot learn that for you.[1]

Hire when the demand is there and you are the bottleneck. Peter Levine at a16z puts it as building sales only when you see demand, and says it is better to be a bit late than to overbuild too early.[2]

  • You have closed a handful of customers who look alike.
  • You can write down the steps a deal goes through.
  • Deals are slipping because you do not have the hours, not because buyers say no.

Who to hire

Martin Casado at a16z favors a strong senior rep who will carry a bag and close deals as the first sales hire, and warns against bringing in a VP of sales too early. A VP builds process and a team. You need someone who closes while the process is still being found.[3]

  • Has sold a product at a startup before, ideally to the same kind of buyer you sell to.
  • Can find the right buyers, line up the meetings and close a deal through procurement, with you on the first calls.
  • Writes things down, so what they learn becomes your playbook.

What to pay

The Bridge Group's 2026 study of 158 B2B companies puts the median account executive's on-target earnings at $200,000, with a median quota of $960,000. Its 2024 study put the split at about 53% base and 47% variable.[4][5]

Plan for a slow start. The same 2026 study finds a ramp of 6.2 months and only 48% of reps reaching quota, so set the first two quarters' targets with that in mind.[4]

How to interview

  1. Ask them to walk through two deals they won and one they lost, with numbers.
  2. Have them run a first call on your product, with you as the buyer.
  3. Ask how they would find their first 50 accounts in your market.
  4. Call a customer they sold to, not only a manager.

The first 90 days

  • Hand over your call notes, your won and lost deals, and the reasons buyers gave.
  • Sit in on their first calls, then let them run deals alone.
  • Agree on the few numbers you will look at each week: meetings, open deals, closed revenue.

How Vouch helps

Vouch finds and vets founding engineers and first go-to-market hires for seed and Series A startups. You meet a short list and pay only when you hire. We interview every candidate before you see a name and score each one against your must-haves. Tell us about the role.

Questions founders ask

Should my first GTM hire be a VP of sales?

Usually not. A VP builds a team and a process; your first hire needs to close deals while you are still learning what works. Hire a head of sales once reps are closing consistently.

Sales or marketing first?

If you sell to businesses with a sales call, start with someone who closes. If customers sign up on their own, a growth or marketing hire may come first.

Sources

  1. Paul Graham, Do Things that Don't Scale, July 2013. Read 25 October 2026.
  2. a16z, Peter Levine, Hire a Head of Sales, 26 May 2017. Read 25 October 2026.
  3. a16z, Martin Casado, When Sales Isn't Just Selling: Advice for Founders in Early Markets, 19 October 2018. Read 25 October 2026.
  4. The Bridge Group, 2026 AE Models, Motions & Metrics, 22 June 2026. Read 25 October 2026.
  5. The Bridge Group, 2024 AE Metrics and Compensation Benchmark, 5 March 2024. Read 25 October 2026.

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